Can assembling apparatus



1942- N. J. PETERS CAN ASSEMBLING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 9, 1940 5 Sheets-Sheet l {EIVENTOR Nov. 24, 1942.

N. J. PETERS CAN ASSEMBLING APPARATUS Fil ed 001i. 9, 1940 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 ENTOR.

' iwvw ATTORNEYS Nov. 24, 1942 N. J. PETERS CAN ASSEMBLING APPARATUS Filed 001;. 9, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 #NVENTOR.

7 u I ATTORNEYS BY m Patented Nov. 24, 1942 CAN ASSEMBLING APPARATUS Norman J. Peters, Fond du Lac, Wis., assignor to Damrow Brothers Company, Fond du Lac, Wis.,

a corporation of'Wisconsin Application October 9, 1940, Serial No. 360,364

7 Claims.

The invention relates to mechanism for replacing covers on milk cans or similar containers after the cans and covers have been washed by their passage through a power operated washing machine.

One of the objects of the present invention is to greatly simplify the cover replacing and delivery mechanism of my prior United States Letters Patent No. 2,171,763, dated September 5, 1939, in the arrangement of the can-and cover mover with the cover raising means and the mounting of the cover chute on the cover raising means and the simple means for starting the covered can on its travel down the delivery conveyor. More particularly, in the present instance the mechanism permits the can being placed on a higher level than that used duringits travel through the washer and thus provides a sufiiciently elevated can delivery position so as to give room for plentyof delivery conveyor along which the cans proceed by gravity. This raising of the can position also requires raising of'the cover to a higher position. The present mechanism permits this while keeping the level of the cover rack in the washing machine low, preferably below or nearly below the tops of'the cans, to permit easy placing of the cover on the receiving end of said rack.

The invention further consists in the several features hereinafter set forth and more particularly defined by claims at the conclusion hereof.

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view taken generally on the line l-l of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of apparatus embodying the invention; a

Fig. 3 is a side elevation View of the apparatus in cover receiving position;

Fig. 4 is a detailed side elevation view of the cover chute;

Fig. 5 is a detailed vertical sectional'view through the cover chute;

Fig. 6 is a detailed view of the lower end of the chute control rod in its cover receiving position, parts being in section;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 showing the control rod in cover applying position.

Cover replacers are usually used in conjunction with washing machines in which the cans cover feeding mechanism and can turning mechanism are timed to operate in conjunction with each other, and while these mechanisms may in some instances have a separately classilied status in the art, the present instance the drive for the can and cover feeding mechanism has been greatly simplified by elimination of a special drive cam and the use of a simple crank and connecting rod drive to actuate a-rock shaft which actuates the 'can and cover feed bars, the uprighting cradle of the can turnover mechanism, and the cover replacer mechanism.

Referring more particularly to'the drawings, I have shown the deliveryend portion of a washing machine in which the numeral lfl designates the framework of the machine, H supporting rails over which the cans in inverted position are moved by the pivoted pawls l2 on the reciprocating mover bar l3, [-4 guides or troughs for the covers C along which theyare moved by the pivoted pawls l similar to the pawls i2 and mounted on the cover mover bar It. The pivoted pawls I2 and are of well known construction in which a spiral spring ll "acts to move them in one direction against a stop l8, so that when the feed bars are moving toward the left as viewed in Fig. 2, the pawls will swing by the cans and covers, but in the opposite direction are held in feeding position by said stops. The bars 13 and I6 are connected together by a frame member l9 and reciprocated by mechanism including a rotary motor driven shaft carrying a gear 2| which is operatively connected by a link 22 with a crank arm 23' fixed to the main actuating rock shaft 24. The crank 23*operatively connects through a link 25 and pin 26 with the intermediate part of the frame member 19. To obtain the necessary speed for operating amachine of this kind, reduction drive mechanism is provided between the shaft 20 and the drive motor 21 consisting of a belt and pulley drive connection 23 to a speed reduction gear mechanism 29 which includes a gear 3ll meshing with the gear 2|. With this arrangement the continuous rotation of the motor driven shaft 20 produces a rocking action of the crank 23 and shaft 24 and hence through the link 25 a reciprocatory movement of the frame member l9 and, therefore, a corresponding movement of the feed bars I3- and I 6.

The above described arrangement provides mechanism for carryingthe cans B and covers C in a step by step movement through the different washing stages to the exit end of the machine from which the can B is delivered to any suitable I can turnover mechanism, but as here shown an extremely simple form of mechanism is used in which the rock shaft 24 actuates the uprighting cradle 3| and in which the can B is guided into the arms of said uprighting cradle as it is pushed off the rails I by a curved support 32. The uprighting cradle 3| is of simple construction being formed of two spaced tubular bars 33 anchored to the shaft 24 and connected across by a plate 34. With this arrangement after delivery of the can to the uprighting cradle 3|, the rocking movement of the shaft 24 acts to move this cradle from the lowered position shown in full lines in Fig. 1 to the upright position shown in dotted lines therein and deposits the can on the first section 35 of a delivery conveyonand in this position the uprighted can'is adapted to receive its cover from the cover replacer mechanism now to be described.

The cover replacer mechanism includes a means for carrying the cover from the exit end of the washing machine to a position above and adjacent the mouth of the uprighted can and means for directing the cover from said carrier means into the mouth of the can.

The means for carrying the cover to the uprighted can comprises a supporting arm 36 loosely pivotally mounted on the shaft 24 so as to have lost motion relative thereto and which arm is moved during a certain arc of movement of the shaft 24 by a crank 37 fixed to the shaft 24 and conveniently forming an arm of a bell crank formed by the parts 23 and 37, said crank 31 provided with an adjustable abutment in the form of a screw 38 adjustably secured to the outer end of said crank and movable, as the uprighting cradle moves upwardly, into abutting engagement with arm 36 so as to carry this arm from the inclined position shown in full lines in Figs. 1 and 3 to the upright position shown in dotted in said figures. The outer end of the arm has a cover chute structure 39 pivotally mounted thereon which in the position shown in full in Figs. 1 and 3 receives the cover C as it is pushed off the exit end of the washing machine by the last feed pawl l and holds it until it reaches the vertical dotted line cover delivery position. In moving from the full line position to the dotted line position a stop or abutment 40 on the arm 36 engages the outwardly bent end 4| of a rod 42, suitably slidably mounted and guided in the frame of the machine and normally urged to the position shown in Fig. 2 by a coil spring 43, and thereby causes said rod 42 to move forwardly and puts the spring 43 under compression, so that after the crank 31 has raised the arm 36 to a vertical position and descends, the energy stored up in the spring 43 will move the rod 42 and in turn the arm 36 to its lowered position in engagement with a bumper member 44 while the shaft 24 will continue to move the uprighting cradle 3| down to its can receiving position.

The means for guiding the cover into the mouth of the can comprises mechanism for tilting the chute 39 to a cover applying position and in some instances means for forcibly pushing the cover from the chute as it moves to this position. The chute 39 is pivotally connected at one side to a frame 45 by a pin 46 whose ends are carried by said frame fixed to or forming a part of the outer end of the arm 36. When, in a cover receiving position, the chute rests against an adjustable stop 4! mounted on the frame 45, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5. Under the action of means controlled by the shaft 24 the chute 33 is tipped from the vertical dotted line position of Fig. 5 to the full line position shown therein, the amount of tipping or inclination being controlled by an adjustable stop 48 on the frame 45 engaged by a part 49 of the chute.

For moving the chute 39 from a position parallel to the path of movement of the can to a position at right angles thereto and at varying degrees of inclination relative to the mouth of the can, I have provided a control rod 56 pivotally connected at its upper end 5| to a bracket 52 secured to the chute on the same side as the pivot pin 46 and extending down to and through a guide 53 pivotally mounted on a pin 54 secured to the framework of the machine, the axis of said pin being parallel to but offset laterally from that of the rock shaft 24. The lower end of the rod 50 is threaded to receive a nut 55, and a spring 56 is mounted on said rod between said nut and the guide 53. Above the guide 53 the rod 50 is provided with a stop or enlargement 51, and a spring 58, of somewhat greater tension than that of the spring 56, is interposed between said stop 5'i and the upper end of guide Thus while the springs 56 and 53 tend to balance each other and hence the operation of the chute as it swings, there is a constant tendency for the spring 58 to lengthen the effective length of that portion of the rod extending upwardly from the pivot 54 and thus move said rod 56 upwardly relative to the guide 53 and thus tilt or swing the chute from its inclined cover applying. position to its vertical cover carrying position as the arm 36 moves from its vertical position to its inclined position, the final cover receiving position being shown in the full line positions of the chute C in Figs. 1 and 3. It is noted that the chute 39 being hinged oil to the side at pivot point 46 is over-weighted on the back end where it strikes the screw 41', so that when the chute gets to a certain position because of being urged to this position by the spring 58, the overweight of the chute helps to return it to cover receiving position. The springs 58 and 56 are merely for balance, easy movement. and to start urging the chute in one direction or the other. The chute C reaches this position before the uprighting cradle 3| reaches its can receiving position, so that said chute is in position to receive a cover as soon as the cover is pushed out of the washing machine at the time the can is also pushed over the turnover member 32. Thereafter, after the cover has been pushed into the chute C and the can has been deposited on the uprighting cradle 3|, the shaft 24 reverses its rocking movement, and the can is carried upwardly and deposited in a vertical position upon the section of the delivery conveyor. Just before the can is placed on the conveyor, the cover lifting arm 36 has been moved from its inclined position to a position near the vertical, and as said arm 36 moves to its vertical position, the cover chute C starts to swing to a cover applying position because the rod 50, while lengthened somewhat above the pivot 54 through the compression of spring 56, is in effect pulled downwardly relative to the frame because of the shorter center distance on this rod between its pivot 54 and end 5| than from the rock shaft 24 to the pivot point 5| of the rod with the chute. As said rod is thus pulled downwardly, the chute swings to a point past the horizontal, so'that it may then continue to swing down by gravity to its final inclined position, though it is urged to this positionat all times by the difierence in length of the pivot point 24 and the length of the control rod 50, and in this position chute and a cam 56 fixed to the frame #5. The

pusher member 59 includes a cover engaging arm 6|, a pivot sleeve 62 through which a pin 63 se-.

cured to the chute passes, and. a cam engaging arm 64 with which the cam 60 cooperates.

When the cover chute is in cover receiving position, as shown in full in Fig. 1, thecam (it has moved the pusher 59 to a position in front of'the cover C, and thereafter as the chute 39 is tilted by the rod 59 to a cover discharging or applying position, the arm 64 riding up the surface of the cam 60 is swung toward the right while the arm 6| moves toward the left as viewed in full lines in Fig. 1 to bring the pusher into the dotted line position shown in this figure and cause the positive pushing of the cover from the chute 39, so that in falling it will fall right side up into the mouth of the can as shown in Fig. 4. The pusher member is normally maintained in an inoperative position by reason of the relative weight of its diflerent parts, the member 59 weighing more than arm 64.

After the covers have been applied to the cans, covered cans are delivered to a delivery conveyor, and in the present instance I have provided for the gravity feed of a long line of cans along an endless conveyor of the spaced gravity feed roller type, the first section 35 of this conveyor is adapted through loose bolt connections 65 with its supporting frame 66 to tilt about its front edge, so that raising it from the rear edge 61 will tip the can B to an inclined position where it will roll along the rollers of this section 35 to the rollers of the main delivery conveyor which is pitched the necessary amount to cause the cans to move outwardly along the same to a place where they may be put onto trucks or otherwise disposed of. For tilting the conveyor section 3%: I have provided the shaft 24 with a short crank arm 68 having an adjustable tappet screw 69 engageable with the edge 61 to tilt said section 35 upwardly as the shaft 24 swings the cradle 3| to can receiving position. As the cradle 3| starts to move the can from its lay-down position to its upright position, the screw 69 moves out of contact with the edge 61 and the conveyor section 35 returns to a level position under the action of gravity. In order to prevent the uprighting cradle 3| from starting the immediate delivery of the uprighted can B as it is deposited onto the conveyor section 35, two or more of the conveyor rollers l6 are adapted to engage a rubber pad H as the conveyor section is lowered and thus brake any tendency for these rollers to revolve and thus prevent movement of the can from this conveyor section until after it has received its cover. It will also be noted that with the present arrangement the can is covered while actually on the conveyor and no intermediate feeding means has to be provided between the covering station and the conveyor.

The present invention permits the cans and covers to be moved along side by side in parallel paths in the washing machine and the inverted of the deli-very conveyor in a sufficiently elevated position so that a longline of cans may be readily accommodatedfon a g'ravityfeed type of conveyor," the'cover being placed on the uprighted can by mechanism which raises the cover from the cover rack and then directs said cover into the mouth of the can, the covered-can being given an initial start on the inclined delivery conveyor by raising the back. end of the first section of said conveyor.

I desire it to'b'e understood that this invention isnotto be limited to any particular form or arrangement of parts except in so far as such limitations are included in the claims.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A can assembling machine comprising a support, said support being adapted to hold a can in uprightposition, a laterally disposed cover guideway at a lower elevation than the top of a can situated on said support, a cover carrying and applying chute, means for oscillating said chute to carry the cover from a cover receiving position adjacent said cover guideway to a position adjacent an uprighted can on the said support, and means for tilting said chute while adjacent the uprighted can to direct the cover toward the mouth of the uprighted can.

2. A can assembling machine comprising a support, said support being adapted to hold a can in upright position, a laterally disposed cover guideway at a lower elevation than the top of a can situated on said support, a cover receiving chute, means for moving said chute from a cover receiving position adjacent said cover guideway to a position adjacent an uprighted can on said support, means for tilting said chute to an inclined cover discharging position, and means operable by the tilting of the chute for positively pushing the cover out of said chute as said chute tilts to cover discharging position.

3. A can assembling machine comprising a support, said support being adapted to hold a can in upright position, a laterally disposed cover guideway, a swinging cover chute carrier, a cover chute tiltably mounted on said carrier, means for swinging said carrier to upright position to bring said cover chute to a position above and in transverse alignment with the mouth of an uprighted can on said support, and

means for tilting said chute to cover discharging position as said carrier reaches its upright position.

can to be uprighted directly onto the first part 7 4. A can assembling machine comprising a support, said support being adapted to hold a can in upright position, a laterally disposed cover guideway, a swinging cover chute carrier, a cover chute tiltably mounted on said carrier, means for swinging said carrier from adjacent said guideway to upright position to bring said cover chute to a position above and in transverse alignment with the mouth of an uprighted can on said support, means for tilting said chute to cover discharging position as said carrier reaches its upright position, a pusher pivotally mounted on said chute, and a cam mounted on said carrier and causing said pusher to positively push the cover from said chute as it moves to its tilted position.

5. A can assembling machine comprising a support, said support being adapted to hold a can in upright position, a laterally disposed cover guideway at a lower elevation than the top of a can situated on said support, an oscillatory shaft, an oscillatory cover chute carrier having a lost motion connection with said shaft whereby said cover is moved from an inclined position adjacent said cover guideway to a vertically disposed position adjacent an uprighted can on said support during the latter part of the oscillatory movement of said shaft, a cover delivery chute tiltably mounted on said carrier, and means for tilting said chute as said carrier moves to its upright position.

6. A can assembling machine comprising a support, said support being adapted to hold a can in upright position, a laterally disposed cover guicleway, an oscillatory cover chute carrier movable from an inclined position adjacent said cover guideway to a vertically disposed position adjacent an uprighted can on said support, an operating shaft for said carrier, a cover delivery chute tiltably mounted on said carrier, a pivot member oifset from the axis of said shaft, a control rod operatively connecting said chute with said pivot member for tilting said chute downwardly as said carrier moves to cover applying position, and spring means for returning said carrier to a cover receiving position.

'7. A can assembling machine comprising a tiltable support, said support being adapted to hold a can in upright position, a laterally disposed cover guideway, an oscillatory shaft, a cover carrier loosely pivotally mounted on said shaft, a tiltable cover chute on said carrier, means for turning said carrier with said shaft during a portion of said shafts turning movement in one direction to move said chute from a cover receiving position adjacent said guideway to a cover discharging position adjacent a can on said support, means for automatically returning said carrier to cover receiving position, and means operable as said carrier swings to a vertical position to tilt said chute to a cover discharging position.

NORMAN J. PETERS. 

